Delhi HC moots congestion fee on cars

Suggesting a 'congestion fee' on private cars entering certain parts of Delhi as one way to ease the traffic situation, the Delhi HC on Wednesday made a decisive intervention to regulate movement of vehicles in the capital.

| TNN | Feb 11, 2010, 12.23 AM IST

NEW DELHI: Suggesting the imposition of a "congestion fee" on private cars entering certain parts of Delhi as one way to ease the nightmarish traffic situation on city roads, the Delhi High Court on Wednesday made a decisive intervention to regulate movement of vehicles in the capital.

A full HC bench created a 'special task force' whose job will be to "explore all questions pertaining to road traffic in Delhi" with focus on reducing congestion and pollution levels. Led by Delhi's chief secretary, the charter of the task force includes review of traffic flow, registration of vehicles, and restrictions on vehicular movement.

"Delhi will not be unique if such measures (restrictions on movement of private cars) are actively implemented. In London a stiff 'congestion fee' is levied on private vehicles in some parts of the city," the bench said.

Crucially, HC has decided to closely monitor progress made by the task force and fixed every second Wednesday of the month to get an update.

The task force, to convene eight weeks from now, will consist of a traffic expert, a DCP nominee of the Delhi Police commissioner, a town planning expert nominated by DDA, two nominees from the private sector or drawn from autonomous institutions, an expert in pollution control and one from the field of environment and urban development. The principal secretary, Delhi transport department, has been made the member secretary of the team.

The court said the time had come to take hard decisions. "Planet earth seems to be running out of options unless unorthodox and sometimes unpopular policies are pursued," Justice S Ravindra Bhat noted, writing for the full bench comprising Chief Justice A P Shah (due to retire on Thursday) and Justice S Muralidhar.

The judge pointed out that influx of private vehicles was clogging roads in the capital and that they "appropriate a lion's share of road space in Delhi".

The court came out with these key directions on a PIL opposing a cap on licences for cycle-rickshaws in the city. The court agreed with petitioner NGOs 'Manushi' and 'Initiative for Transportation and

Development Programmes' that the cap was illegal and set it aside. In the process, HC reversed a decision of its own division bench, broadened its ambit and decided to monitor progress on decongestion of Delhi roads.

Even while it dealt with the ban on cycle-rickshaws, the court constantly kept its attention on the burgeoning vehicular traffic on Delhi roads and noted, "While freedom to use personal vehicles is undeniable, the authorities, in the opinion of this court, have an obligation to ensure that such use of public roads has to be regulated.... Road space can't be monopolized by one mode of transport when bulk of the population depends on public transport."

HC cited several reports on road management to conclude that there was a "crying and urgent need to increase and augment public transport -- be it increase in number of buses, more Delhi Metro lines or any other mode."

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